ASX 200: Johns Lyng agrees to $1bn buyout; Lynas, Iluka rocket after Pentagon rare earths deal; National Storage splurging millions on Abacus buy-up

Lynas, Iluka rocket as US peer scores rare earths deal with Pentagon. JLG boss and major shareholder's big windfall in Pacific Equity Partners' $1bn buyout. National Storage's buy-up of Abacus continues. Property sector sinks as Macquarie downgrades on 'expensive' valuations.

Rare earths miner Lynas, which currently processes WA materials at this plant in Kuantan, Malaysia, is one of the strong ASX gainers on Friday after former US merger target MP Materials secured the Pentagon as a stakeholder.

That's all from the Trading Day blog for Friday, July 11. The ASX 200 index closed down 0.1 per cent at 8580.1 with the property sector weakest and miners up.

On Wall Street, Nvidia's close above $US4 trillion saw the S&P 500 rise 0.3 per cent to a new high, with the Nasdaq also hitting a record after its 0.1 per cent gain. The Dow Jones index ended 0.4 per cent higher.

Cryptocurrency giant bitcoin is at $US116,500 - after hitting a record $US116,876.60 in latest trading, according to Coindesk.

The Aussie dollar is trading at US65.80c.

Originally published as ASX 200: Johns Lyng agrees to $1bn buyout; Lynas, Iluka rocket after Pentagon rare earths deal; National Storage splurging millions on Abacus buy-up